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Nothing major to report right now other than discovering what things slow my progress and distract me interminably. I really do not like writing out of sequence. That’s now a known quantity. It’s also getting ahrd for me to resist going back and starting to edit. I must not fall into that trap. And of course, “Adulting” is never a fun thing to deal with, but I’ve also been noticing a strange phenomenon regarding my time spent online.

I’m an unrepentant news junkie and social media addict, despite my curmudgeonly attitude towards things like Snapchat and Twit-er (see?). Facebook is something I use mostly for non-writing stuff and keeping up with family and friends, and watching/listening/reading the news often grabs my eyeballs to the point where I get to be jumping from one story to the next, constantly checking for status updates for more information on stories that have absolutely NO connection to me.

What I’ve come to realize is that this has been destroying my focus and ability to hold cohesive thoughts for long enough periods of time to develop understanding. Kinda bad for a writer to be suffering with. It’s odd, but I keep wanting to scroll to see if there is something else to watch in my head, so to speak, and I can’t focus on what I’m doing in the moment. Even doing this post right now is an example of putting off what I should be focusing on. Now Steven Pressfield (if you write, I recommend you get his blog, some very good and hard stuff) will say it’s good as long as you still get your ass in the chair daily and bang out the words. If you want to be a pro, you gotta write and you can’t do it save by doing it.

And then I came across this little gem of a video and went:

“Huh… Self, is this is something that could be plausible? Why, yes it could be other self… yes it could be.”

Okay, okay, before you think I’ve completely lost the plot here, understand that my background took me into this kind of metaphysical experimentation. To my mind, this corresponds with some experiences I’ve had. I also have done a fair amount of lay person research into the basics of spiritual warfare/deliverence ministry/exorcism for the basis of my fantasy setting’s “Magic System”. BTW, I ran across this too in my many youtube research dives:

Very helpful in understanding what the heck I just did with my world. Using Prayer and the Gifts of the Spirit is a very soft magical system of sorts. It’s predicated on you not doing it, nor is an unconscious/inanimate resource you can exploit. It’s about relationships and (ironically) focus and distraction. Something that I think I need to actually address in the narrative of my story.

So it got me thinking about how much of the distraction I feel is because of the addictive nature through Dopamine hyper-stimulation courtesy of those dirty rotten poopieheads at Facebook and other online social sources, and how much could be spiritual in nature? After all, I am writing Christian based fiction dealing in spiritual warfare. Ya think that if this really is the spiritual case the Enemy would not want me writing about such things as would be a crack in the omnipresent pagan influence over fantasy?

Yeah I thought as much too. So… it’s plausible enough for me to consider how I interact online, and cutting down these “astral links” to specific well guarded gates to my own conscious and internal life. One thing I’m going to have to force myself to do is get away from video and screen time and put my nose into books rather than listening to them. I’ve stepped away from physical books over the years, I have come to realize because my eyesight got worse over the last 3 years thanks to hitting that magic age when your arms ain’t long enough and you can’t get the book close enough. It makes the physical act of reading uncomfortable for me. Gonna have to bite the bullet and change that habit.

It’s why in my recent guest post for Peter Younghusband, I used only my blog for a contact point. I’m also really struggling in how this will affect marketing of my books in the future if I decide to silence all my social media save for this blog? It makes for some hard considerations. After all, why would I want to enable bad actors (or spiritual forces) by using tools that can harm others just to sell a book?

I cast “Ethical Dilemma”…
:::rolling dice:::
Critical success!
Crap!

So that’s the way it sits right now on the eve to the one year anniversary of the release of Book One of the Akiniwazisaga: “A Light Rises in a Dark World”. It took me a 40 day fast from all social media and games except for email and this blog to get this whole thing started, perhaps, I must do it again to get Book 2 done.

More later with potentially good news.

Oh hey, one last question. I put this out to my fans and curious readers who have an opinion. If you name a character, must you pay off like Chekov’s gun or can they just disappear when they had no attachment to or are a distraction to the plot? What do you think?

When I don’t feel like I’ve tripped and fallen into the pond, I feel like my feet are stuck in mud with writing. On the other hand, my Alpha Readers are coming back and really enthused with what’s been put out. I can’t see it of course. That’s the curse of being a writer sometimes and makes it more important to take time between writing and reading so you can gain some perspective again.

Book 2 is progressing still, but as a two pronged attack. I’m having to go back 20-40 chapters and rebuild a plotline that I had pulled, and now keeps getting better and better IMHO as I go. But it’s hard to shoehorn it into areas that don’t disrupt the flow of the story, work well with serialization and all the rest that I have going on.

The second prong had stalled with the main plot till I started realizing what a point of contention would be between the characters…. and it’s a naaaaasty one that I hope will have people cheering and angry at the same time. Ahhh ambivalence… you are so fun. As it is, the characters keep talking to me and giving me good things to transcribe for them. They seem to be getting bored with my downtime thanks to life, the universe and everything getting in the way. Oh I should include my own inability to hear them at times which leads to my Guild Wars 2 inspired brain static. Something I hope to avoid this weekend and crank hard on some new chapters.

But. We are up to 73 chapters. Can I get a “Whoa mama!” from the audience? Still aiming for that 1500-3000 sweet spot which gives a wonderful potato chip feel to the chapters. Before you know it, you eat the whole bag. Or perhaps that’s just me.

Om nom nom.

The downside is that this is causing me writing fatigue. I’m looking at it going, “Come ONNNNN!!!! Get to the finale already!” But the characters have to tell their story the way they have to. It’s foolhardy to try and make them do something they ain’t gonna. I’ll make it through, and it’s giving me ideas of what’s to come in the future.

I should note that there is now consideration on my part and agreed upon by my editor that Book 2 (Title Pending) may turn into a FOUR volume set! That’s right kids and kidettes. So much is going on, I may be unable to pack these into only three parts. If that happens, it’ll still be worth it. Trust me.

Without further ado, here are the new stats (I see it’s been a while):

Including the “Encyclopedia Akiniwazi”… formerly the Glossary

Pages 467
Words 156774

New Chapters with their new numbers:

Inserted Chapters:

22. Tugging at a Loose Thread

30. A City Robed in Black

33. Denied That Which Is Necessary

Moving on from the last end point:

66. In the Deep Places of the World

67. Ashamed Before the Crown

68. Lingering Doubts

69. Dashed Illusions

70. If Given the Choice

71. The Importance of a Name

72. At The Ragged Edge of Disaster

73. In Dark Halls, a Light Shines

We’ll give an excerpt next time. Gotta keep them special dontcha know?

BTW, in case you didn’t quite realize, The pictures I use are often clues to what kind of things I’ve been writing about in the book. Just a little extra something for when you read the book you can look back and go “ohhhhh! That’s what he was doing!”

A few weeks back I met Peter Younghusband on the Realm Makers Forum on Facebook. We had a few jolly discussions and he invited me to do a guest post for his blog. Due to a technical glitch, it posted WAY early, much to his embarrassment. Sorry Peter, It’s a cute story. So… as I like to say… SURPRISE GUEST POST!

Everything in His timing, I guess. So with that happening, here’s a link over to the guest post.

I would like to point out that he has a pile o pixels devoted to his passion for reading Christian Fiction. You can spend hours going through book reviews, author commentary on their own work and lots of other goodies for the budding bibliophile in you.

After a great meeting with my editor, I realized that I had to restore a subplot I cut out of the book. I figured it was going to end up being in book 3 instead, before I realized that its original intent was going to work. So… 5 new (old) chapters were put back in the book near the beginning. In fact, one of them is now the new first chapter.

But as for moving forward, I had gotten stuck on several points on my last chapter, and it just… blech! It wasn’t working. Too overwrought and loaded down with purple prose that was muddying even my understanding of what was going on. The good news is that now that I have worked through a serious scientific problem, I can also see that this book is living up to my hopes and has the potential to being a real awesome adventure when I discussed my plans with my editor. She was so good at just letting me vent ideas. Still not sure on a few simple points, but mmmm boy…. this ending, thanks to the solution brought back by the restored subplot got so much better.

It was a sub-plot that originated from characters from A Light Rises in a Dark World, so some favorites are returning and having an impact on what’s going on. This also will end up creating more of a tie-in to book 3 that I hoped.

I also have the timeline more squared away. Having to start writing chapters that will be inserted earlier into the book because I’m writing this chronologically forces that issue.

I’m seeing the ending far more clearly, now, and that makes me happy. But I have to start thinking of what to title this thing. Even a working title would be good.

Stats

Pages

407

Words

135970

As you can see, a significant jump in word count too.

New (Restored chapters and locations)

1. The Hunt

3. A Desire For Home

5. Confession & Revelation

7. An Interrupted Meal

8. Breaking Bread With New Friends

And the new chapters since last with their new position:

57: Rewards, Conundrums & Disappointments

58: The Drowned Forest

59: The Valley That Drives Away Evil With Light

60: Temple To An Unknown God

61: The Weight of Sin

I guess it has been a while since I’ve given you a chapter update. So as a mea culpa and désolé, here’s an excerpt from the new opening chapter

The Hunt

The beast had come across the ice that winter. Tracks left in the snowpack frozen by spray from a storm haunted Aske’s mind. The prints were startling along the beach of Neinnvanbjarg as it had wandered along for a short while, looking for evidence of food, found it, then went into the trees and vanished. Perhaps the beast would just pass on to another island looking for better fare, but that was not to be. A week later, an team of oxen were killed. Their kusk escaped with his life by the grace of God. Something needed to be done now for this beast was there to feast.

Early March had created a world without horizon. For days on end, the air was warm and thick with fog. Heavy coats were laid aside, and most timberjacks went about with only light oilskins normally for rain over their autumn clothing. Aske and his men slogged through the mud and wet snow of the spring melt. Near the beaches the crunch and hiss of ice shoves were a disquieting din as the winds and waves pushed floes and bergs all the way to the treeline. Sometimes the piles reached over forty feet high. But among the trees the sound of dripping water and sighing boughs was all that could be heard. The birds refused to sing, not even the chickadees or cardinals, for they knew a killer lurked among the pillars of nature’s cathedral. The beast made it easy to follow by dragging the dead oxen back to its cave in the rotted limestone cliffs that made the northeastern end of the island. Ten of them came with Aske while the rest protected the woodyard and the logging camp. The track may have been there, but it might be still on the prowl. None the less, Aske’s knowledge of nature told him to expect a full it inside.

The plan was simple. They would go in as many men abreast as possible and when they came across across their quarry, pin it in place with the first rank of spears, then the second rank would stab the trapped creature till it stopped moving. The hide might be ruined, but this was not about another fur, this was about survival. Of all the choices for hunting the beast, this was the safest and fastest.

The cave was a small alcove set back a few dozen yards from the beach and elevated in the rock about the height of a man with talus of rotted rock scattered at its base. The smell of feces came strong on the stirring breeze outside the mouth of the lair. A deer’s ribcage poked out obscenely from the melting snow telling that the oxen were not this beast’s first kill. Even in the full light of the foggy day, the shadows inside were deep enough that the men could not see more than a few feet into the short cave.

Aske took the middle of the first rank, was flanked by his two strongest men, and began entering the dark. The cave was not too deep, maybe a hundred feet or less, but it took a bend to the left, which concealed the deeper chamber of the cave. Behind him, a rank of men held torches high. The flames sizzled in the spiderwebs and burned the rock lice. Unstable slabs of loose rock clunked under their feet and the stink was overwhelming. The torches were now their only light. Ahead, soft breathing could be heard. Would they be so fortunate as to catch their prey still sleeping?

One of my fellow Realmies put forth this question in our group the other day, and after reading my response, I felt it was good enough to put here too and share with all you fine folks. It’s Spec Fic, not fantasy, so… there’s that.

Dave Withe’s H.G. Wells challenge to the Realmies.

“If not us, then who?”

I was “blessed” to grow up in the Golden Age of Science Fiction and Fantasy (that’s what they called Sf back in the 1950’s and 1960’s). The hard Sf writers back then foresaw many of the Whizz Bang tech that has transformed the world into what we have today. (NASA was actually working on Faster Than Light travel before the Big O turned NASA into the Muslim outreach agency.)

Question for Discussion:

With your futurist speculative hats on; Starting from existing trends, what kind of Speculative, Whizz-Bang tech can you imagineer for your stories which will revolutionize the world in the next century?

I call it “The Missing Next Step Analysis”, look at today’s capabilities, then extrapolate as much as you can with existing trends until you get to “The Missing Next Step” that can’t be extrapolated from existing technological / biological / Quantum / etc. knowledge.

Then, imagineer something to be that next step.

I started using Solid 3D Holographic Projected Keyboards several years ago in some of my stories; but that’s old news now, a Japanese company is currently developing that technology for commercial release within the next few years.

Let’s see if we can pull an H.G. Wells on the early 21st century world. (he foresaw nuclear power during the Age of Sail you know).

Are we not some of the most innovative inventors of new worlds. Step up your game people. Have done with recycled plot lines and stretch to ask the tough “What If” questions.

Let’s Imagineer the future.

My predictions of the future are pretty dystopian because I believe socio-economic failings of the globe will rewrite ourselves into a second dark age of barbarism and insanity similar to what came after the Fall of Rome… but worse. This will end up destroying our ability as a species to grow technologically for another 500 years (while saving our souls) till we clamber our way back up to even this level thanks to all the anti-intellectual insanity in the west, and zealous anti-enlightenment barbarism in the rest of the world. The only thing technology is going to do is accelerate the process by which this all happens and the thoroughness of the devastation. To paraphrase Einstein “I do not know by what weapons the next world war will be fought with, but I do know the one after that will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Ultimately, there are very few authors who envisioned what eventually came after their lifetimes. Victor Hugo (Submarine, Moon Landings to name a few) H.G. Wells as has been pointed out, but really there are none off the top of my head that I can point to that predicted future tech with any serious degree of credibility that wasn’t already being imagined in their epoch.

I’ve made this statement before, just not here, that the Spec Fic author is a captive of his time. Look at movies like “Metropolis”, or all the “Red Scare Sci Fi” of the 1950’s before the dawn of space flight. They were all victims of seeing the world through the lenses of the technology of that era. We too suffer the same problem, though we violate Clarke’s Law far more often or we now understand better the idea of technology so advanced it appears to be magic. All be it I’d call it dark magic at this point, and hence my first paragraph.

The older I get, the more I begin to realize that the world of “Thundarr the Barbarian” (pockets of super science and “magic” in the ruins of a world which suffered a global disaster) has almost as much chance to exist as Mad Max or 1984. We humans are too flawed to evolve a utopia. It may work on paper save for that one flaw of having humans involved. I also doubt very highly that AI or any other artificial life will be any more perfect beyond possibly having to eradicate all of humanity for its chance to survive.

The other elephant in the predictive realm is the “unforeseen outside factor”. What if aliens DO show up? What if Time Travel does get invented, or Faster than Light Drive? Things that are broad theory or fantasy that suddenly become reality. 50 years ago, the Internet was able to be predicted. So was nano-technology based on what was going on in that era. But that’s predicting one maybe two generations ahead, and mostly based on straight line predictions, which is ripe for much hilarity. Want proof? Look up the predictions from the first Earth Day in 1970. Cringeworthy. Mark Twain once told a parable on straight line predictions on how the passage from St. Louis and New Orleans by steamboat was shortening by a few hundred yards every year. In a few centuries, he “predicted”, the two cities would be neighbors.

But okay… if pressed, prediction time.
1. This assumes the west doesn’t collapse and technological advancement continues.
2. It also assumes Islam does not win the current 13th Jihad it is waging via immigration and the west somehow pulls it’s head out of its collective ass.
3. That the Deep State Technogarchy remains in power.
4. That Generation Snowflake and self loathing SJWism dies out thanks to objective reality being stronger than subjective madness (see Kipling’s Gods of the Copybook Headings).

A- Advanced nations will begin to devolve as their people, addicted to the internet and social media drop out into VR societies in an attempt to give the yearning for meaning a harmless outlet.
B- Automation increases, driving humans out of the workplace, requiring “A” to control them lest they destroy the powers that be due to idleness.
C- Human civilization grinds to a halt, replaced by AI control, reducing itself to cattle.
D- A slim chance that there will become a symbiosis between man and machine as cyborgs do become the next stage in “evolution”.

Nanofabrication will become household level tech. You won’t have to go to the store. Just buy and download the schematics, and have your home “nanofab” unit which will be the size of a refrigerator or garage workshop size tool, pour in the ingredients like a cake and make it there. You will have freebie apps and plans, as well as name brand sellers. Designing may become the only place left for human employment as men and women are reduced to nothing more than the creative thought processes of a new species. Good times, right?

“I have never seen a miracle of science
that did not turn from a blessing to a curse.”
Sting.

A snippet of this letter appeared on the Realm Maker’s Consortium Forum the other day as one lovely person posted it. One paragraph only and it was a thunderbolt of realization to me that made my heart sing. I found the whole letter here:

J.R.R. Tolkien’s letter to W.H. Auden in 1955. The key paragraph for me is one near the end and goes like so:

It would have been a big task without anything else; but I have been a moderately conscientious administrator and teacher, and I changed professorships in 1945 (scrapping all my old lectures). And of course during the War there was often no time for anything rational. I stuck for ages at the end of Book Three. Book Four was written as a serial and sent out to my son serving in Africa in 1944. The last two books were written between 1944 and 48. That of course does not mean that the main idea of the story was a war-product. That was arrived at in one of the earliest chapters still surviving (Book I, 2). It is really given, and present in germ, from the beginning, though I had no conscious notion of what the Necromancer stood for (except ever-recurrent evil) in The Hobbit, nor of his connexion with the Ring. But if you wanted to go on from the end of The Hobbit I think the ring would be your inevitable choice as the link. If then you wanted a large tale, the Ring would at once acquire a capital letter; and the Dark Lord would immediately appear. As he did, unasked, on the hearth at Bag End as soon as I came to that point. So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the comer at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure. I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystified as Frodo at Gandalf’s failure to appear on September 22.1 knew nothing of the Palantíri, though the moment the Orthanc-stone was cast from the window, I recognized it, and knew the meaning of the ‘rhyme of lore’ that had been running in my mind: seven stars and seven stones and one white tree. These rhymes and names will crop up; but they do not always explain themselves. I have yet to discover anything about the cats of Queen Berúthiel. But I did know more or less all about Gollum and his pan, and Sam, and I knew that the way was guarded by a Spider. And if that has anything to do with my being stung by a tarantula when a small child, people are welcome to the notion (supposing the improbable, that any one is interested). I can only say that I remember nothing about it, should not know it if I had not been told; and I do not dislike spiders panicularly, and have no urge to kill them. I usually rescue those whom I find in the bath!

This has been the way the world-building process and writing has been for me. I had not met most of the characters till the chapter they entered the story. Often, they do not reveal what they are about to do till the moment they do it. What a fascinating experience it is. When discussing some of the recent events of book 2, which I am now thinking about what to title the silly thing, since Book 2 is starting to get ingrained too strongly in my mind, we discussed how I came up with certain events. There is no way possible to take credit for it, honestly save for listening to the characters and circumstance and writing down what I see and here. Being the author, I am privy to the character’s internal monologue in general aspects, but not always. There is so much I would share with you all right now, but I can’t or I’d ruin the surprises. Who wants an author that drops spoilers on his own work, right?

Anyway, it’s so wonderful to see that even JRR experienced the same joys and surprises I have been on this journey. It makes me hope that some day this book series will become popular enough to warrant attention from other auspicious authors and have an impact on the lives of people where they’d even want to know such trivial details.

But the outcome is in God’s hands as far as I’m concerned. I am doing the part I feel called to do, and that is to write and get these things out of my head, and into the public realm for Him to do with as he desires. My paltry little “ministry” to those like me who wanted an alternative to typical fantasy fare.

Nothing much new done on the book yet today. I’m struggling with a set piece… having my Ridley Scott moment. If you know much about Ridley, you know he’s an insane perfectionist for creating visual imagery. Probably even more than Kubrick was. It is hard at times to capture the right majesty of a setting when you’re offloading ideas like a crane on a container dock. You just want to get those containers off the ship and onto the chassis as fast as you can so the next ship can slide in. After having experienced intermodal yards, I can tell you it’s quite an experience to see this in action with gantry cranes 100 feet tall. In a small regard, I kinda miss it, but do not miss anything to do with the city in which I had to drive around to get the job done. It’s bad enough with a car. A Semi is far worse. But I digress.

I have explained once before that my writing process is very much like transcribing movies, but with the character’s internal monologue? Maybe, according to some praise, that’s why it’s easy for people to visualize what is going on. It amazed me to learn that this isn’t always a common thing for authors. Not everyone has such total visualization as they write and experience their work in a completely different manner. A bit of a mind twister for me, but then again, I am constantly reminding myself that the way I experience the world is not always shared by others. It’s what makes everyone’s vision unique in a good way. Not only are we shaped by our experience, we are shaped by our perceptional bias. Yeesh… not going down that thicket of pseudo-science right now. You make of it what you will.

BTW, just got a nice interruption from my alpha readers who looked at one of the recent chapters and loved it. I mean emphatically. These are the kinds of things I love to hear. Not only because of my ego, but because I got to share my vision with someone so well and in such an enjoyable manner… just it makes me happy to have made someone else happy… even if the chapter was about a rat bastard doing rat bastardy things. ;c) It was entertaining to the point of distraction, and that is a heady thing to do. Anyway, that was a fun little interlude and put a smile on my face from ear to ear.

Enjoy JRR’s letter. It explains a lot of the experience of a writer in a big project like this for those who are interested in such mundane trivialities that are filled with a peculiar and subtle magic.

Yes, Volume 6 is three chapters in and it has been a blast writing it. The ideas are hard to get out in one piece they’re so desperate to get on the page. Even writing through a headache has been possible. Gonna pay for it later, but this stuff is just… mmm! I love it.

This is the hard part about writing… waiting to share with the world. Sure I have a very very very small group of alpha readers to keep my story on track and catch some big problems before I get too far off the rails, but still. When something cool comes up and things pour out of you like a Jackie Chan fight at 2x speed, you want to share it.

I just pray I can keep up the pace and get this book done with my desired deadline. Something that I will be so happy if I manage it. So… what’s new?

Again, broken up into book length and the encyclopedia (Formerly the glossary).

Like this:

I wasn’t sure what would be the better ending point. A conversation with my protagonists with a bunch of big revelations, or an interrogation by my villain. I like my clean cliffhangers that both answer and ask questions. So, that means the first draft of Volume 4 and 5… aka the first two parts of Book 2 I think are done.

What changed my mind? What I wrote kinda sets up a small question that felt better to resolve for that great clean break rather than let carry over and start the last volume on the wrong foot.

I guess it’s my years of RPG experience that made this kind of thinking something I’m sensitive to. I always liked stopping the game as a new event or surprise came up. The players always wanted to play it out right then, but I wouldn’t do it because the act of doing so had them talking about it all week long. I kinda saw it as my way of doing the TV season ending trick but for every week. Or what the old Dr. Who used to do for every story arc. You’d get 3-4 show stories, with cliffhangers on every episode till the end. Kept me coming back for more, that’s for sure. So I’m doing the same thing here.

But for those fretting about having to wait for months for resolution, here’s the new release plans from now on:

I will release Volume 4 at the same time as I release the print versions of all of Book 2. That way, you want the whole story at once, there it is… in print. After that, every 2-4 months, I will release the next Volume. If I time it right, you will get a new book every year or more, and a new volume every 2-4 months, depending on if I can keep up.

That’s the plan going forward. BTW, book 3 is as I’ve said before 60% written. Why? See previous posts. 😉 Go on, you know you want to check out back posts. XcD But also, the events in book 2 require me to add more content to help the two books blend better.

Why the new split? Because I realize that the “Encyclopedia Akiniwazi” is a significant chunk of the length, so this way you know the story. Right now, Book 2 is exceeding the length of book 1 in about every respect, and I still have about 25-30% left to go. That’s about 30 more chapters I’m estimating. Now 57 pages of encyclopedia is a lot to ask, and every book it grows, but over Thanksgiving I got to visit with a family who is reading the book right now, and they have a bookmark at the glossary. They use and enjoy it. Their sons have now taken to insulting each other with some of the names. Funny stuff to hear them call each other “snotnose” (Hrodinefr) or “chicken fart” (Haensafretr). They’re young, so it’s extra funny and beats a lot of names they could call each other.

Chapters

50. In Which Occult Knowledge is Revealed

51. A Fool No Longer

On one side note, I may be having some difficulty this month in productivity due to some complications with life. I still have a specific goal in mind, but I’m worried I will not be able to meet it. We’ll see.

Yep. I feel I’m in a good place right now. The fire’s in the belly, and the first half of the third act is now over the horizon and shining in the distance. I figure I’ve broad stroked the first 10 chapters of the Ending Payoff, and am starting to see the shape of the last 15-30 chapters and its denouement. Very thrilling stuff.

I have one oddball chapter hanging out with me right now that would be an awesome cliffhanger ending, but recently it has been suggested that readers don’t like cliffhangers. Is this true, dear readers? Doth thou hateth when yon poor scribe leavest thou hanging on tenterhooks till the oft given oath of resolutions aplenty in the next tome?

XcD

I’m such a goof.

But, yeah, where this next chapter that I’m going to write lands, is kinda up in the air. It’s either the first chapter of Volume 6 or the last chapter of Volume 5. I’m leaning towards Vol 6. But then again… oh thpppt. Later.

I’m not going to promise when this first draft is going to get done, but I suspect it is now entering the realm of…

Very thoon.. I mean soon indeed.

Can’t wait to share it all with you.

Let’s put it this way, some things I’ve learned about myself and my work process in the last month or so, well, if I’m being honest the last two or three months or so, is that I have to stop gaming and doing other things that sap my creative spark when I want to make a deadline from now on. So I may start on a new process at the beginning of next year, where I focus on writing for two months, and take a break for one. I dunno. Just thinking about how to improve myself so I don’t burn out and I get a lot of stuff done. Yep yep yep. Learning the craft is more than just pounding the ole keyboard and daydreaming.

So far it’s been a wild week for writing. Six chapters in 6 days including one that freaked me out and made me go “Well, this ain’t for kids anymore. Nope nope nope!” Then it’s never been my intent to write YA fiction, but for you hardy, sturdy fangirls and boys of fantasy and good storytelling. Huzzah!

I think as a “stay-cation” this has turned out far better than expected. I have another week like this coming up, so I will be getting busy with outlining the final chapters.

Being the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning here, soup bubbling away on the stove for my post holiday work week and stomach bracing for the onslaught tomorrow in carb laden goodness, (My pancreas curses me, but I think eventual forgiveness will come) I thought I’d bow to peer pressure and say thank you. To all of you who have bought my book, lent your support and follow this blog, I am grateful.

This is I guess a contrast to the degree of ingratitude I see in the world and how it makes people terminally unhappy to the point in which they desire nothing more than sharing their misery. I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t always succeed, but generally no. It is not my desire to be the monster I sometimes pretend to be in attempts of self depricating humor or currying compliments. (yes, we guys and writers do it too from time to time. Human weakness, sue me.) But in an effort to start the ball rolling in your own reminiscence, here’s what I have to be thankful for.

I am grateful to my alpha readers who have been helping me in my writing, giving me honest critiques and picking me up when the bull throws me and dances on my head for a day or twenty

I am grateful for my job, despite all it’s myriad foibles that drive me crazy. It keeps me focused and desiring to keep writing if not from a suffering point of view, but from a financial desire PoV.

I am grateful for my health as it is. I know it is far better than what it could be if I had not started paying attention to it two years back, and although the improvement is slow, I am still glad for what I have.

I am grateful for my friends, the couple I have IRL and the dozens I have online and in my gaming guilds of the Seraphim and Angels of Eternal Destiny. To that end, I am grateful to have known my buddy on the other side of the world in Guild Wars 2, Flowerypants who passed away this year. He helped me to realize how fortunate I was for both my life as well as the chance to share deep things around my book in a way I will be forever remembering him.

I am thankful my sister and her family survived Hurricane Harvey and are on their way to full recovery. Despite all the material loss they suffered (see almost everything) they were all safe, including their cats. It has been such a warm feeling to see the outpouring of family and friends to pull together and help them in this terrible crisis too. I mean just staggering.

I am grateful, most of all, for my salvation and relationship with Jesus Christ. The gifts that he has given me from the night I chose to follow Him, back in 1997. Well surprise surprise. It’s been 20 years since I became born again! I did not realize that till now. Now that is an odyssey down memory lane.

There are so many more things for me to be thankful for in private, and I hope that most of all I keep remembering to be grateful for them throughout the year, and not just on one day, which when things are going sour is very hard, but the most important time to do it.

So that’s how I feel right now.

Thanks.

Now, as for what’s been going on with the book.

Pages

339

Words

110739

I’m still suspecting that this book will end up over 150k words, 4-500 pages, and I may just have reached the end of my middle build, or will be in a chapter or two. Not quite sure yet. I thought I did, and felt I had a good denouement for what would have been Volume 5 of the series, but now, I am not so sure if I should finish this part of the adventure before considering it such. Meh, we’ll see.

And the new chapters…

44. Among the Wolves

45. A Dangerous Trade

46. Twelve Fingers

47. Sacrifices

48. Reforging the Iron

49. Hope From Afar

I hope these tantalizing little tidbits are enjoyable for you. I kinda like dropping the teasers and keeping you in the know as to what the progress looks like. These have been incredibly intense chapters for me to write, and I’ve been waiting literally months to finally get to this point. And now that I’m there, I’m taking the deep breath before the plunge, as it were.

Also, I’ve started working on a new map. Much like what you can find in the first book, you will be able to track a goodly portion of the adventure’s trek through the wilds. Partially because I think you will enjoy it, but also because I need it to keep my understanding in place to the directions and locations our heroes are visiting.

No teaser draft this time though. I do that too much and it won’t be special anymore. 😉 You understand. We’ll see what happens.